s5 ep6 – Wayne Warner

Wayne Warner is renowned for his chart-topping country dance hit Turbo Twang, and has worked with artists ranging from the Statler Brothers’ Jimmy Fortune to Linda Davis and pop icons Taylor Swift and Bonnie Tyler.

His music inspires millions around the world and after time away from the spotlight, Wayne released his book BACKSTAGE Nashville, which gives an inside view of the music industry from the point of view of a small-town boy entering major label record negotiations and working with major recording artists.

Wayne shares how the book flowed through his fingers in a mammoth writing session and how it is now helping up and coming artists to get a behind the scenes look at the industry so they can better navigate its terrain.

Wayne also touches on his journey to becoming a father and how the experience shaped his desire to make music that touches the soul and inspires positive change.

You can buy Wayne’s latest album and his book here.

Watch the video above or read on for the full interview transcription:

Roxanne – Hello everyone and welcome to The Phoenix Phenomenon. I’m your host, ghostwriter, Roxanne McCarthy O’Kane. Thank you for joining us for another episode where we delve into the transformative process of becoming an author and talk to the change makers who know this journey all too well. Today I have with me Wayne Warner, who’s a renowned for, who is renowned for his chart-topping country dance hit, Turbo Twang and has worked with artists ranging from The Statler brothers, Jimmy Fortune to Linda Davis and pop icons, Taylor Swift, and Bonnie Tyler. After time away from the spotlight, I’ve just heard he’s back in the studio recording another album and he has released his book, which is called Backstage Nashville, which gives an inside view of the music industry from the point of view of a small town boy entering major label record negotiations and working with major recording artists. So thank you so much for joining us halfway around the world today, Wayne. It’s a pleasure to have you on.

Wayne – Roxanne, it’s such a pleasure to be on I am such a fan of your work and such a great thrill to be on the Phoenix phenomenon. And you know there is a phoenix phenomenon that happens as you’ve mentioned, when you’re writing a book. So I’m just thrilled to be on your show and it is halfway around the world and I apologize if there is any audio issues. We’re having a storm here outside of my recording studio, so hopefully we can get through here and make this work.

Roxanne – Absolutely. No, that’s wonderful. And I’m looking forward to uncovering a lot more about the journey that you’ve been on, Wayne, but I guess first of all, obviously music has been your first passion. You were a musician long before you were an author. So I’d love for you to share with our viewers a bit about what it was that first got you so passionate about music.

Wayne – Well, you know, I was bottle-fed country music. We were forced to watch Hee Haw every Saturday night. And so I grew up playing in my dad’s family band. And, you know, I was just amazed. I think I’ve always been amazed, Roxanne by the power of words. And, you know, we had some people that were involved in politics in my family and just the power of words and watching them do speech writing and the impact that words could have. And so being a songwriter, crafting words, and of course you only have three minutes, you know, if you’re trying to make a story work and if you’re trying to fit a storyline in there that makes sense and to try to connect with somebody within three minutes. And I love the challenge of it and more importantly than not and as you know, I mean, you’ve been a professional writer since what, 2007, I think. Somewhere around there?

Roxanne – Yeah, that was accurate.

Wayne – So, I didn’t only want to make a song, I didn’t only wanna you know, write a song of three minutes but I wanted it even if it was one line, I wanted something that meant something. That was very important to me. I didn’t, you know, you mentioned my hit song, Turbo Twang and I’ll say it to you because you know, you and your audience are friends of mine or going to be, hopefully, it’s one of my least favorite songs I ever wrote because to me it had no substance to it. And it became my biggest hit and I’m honored for that. But I like to be able to have one or two lines that have substance to it. And so I’ve always been intrigued by that and trying to find that magic, those magic words as you know and any writer knows, whether it’s songwriting and I suppose, you know, that writing several magic lines and writing a book. So that’s always been my attraction to music. Music, you know, I think music, and there’s a popular phrase, I think music can say things that sometimes words alone would struggle to do. If you can find the right lyric to merge with the right melody, sometimes I think, Roxanne, you can get a message heard that might otherwise been void of the message. One of those projects for me was a song called God Bless the Children. I’m a dad of two amazing, beautiful adopted black sons. And so I wrote a song and recorded a song called God Bless the Children where so many great singers that many of your audience would know joined me on that song. And you know, it mean so much more to me, Roxanne and the gold record, because I ended up getting letters from all over the world who said they’d never considered adoption until they heard the song and saw this video. And I think that’s when I really realized the power of words merged with the right lyric, with the right melody. And that was really a thrill for me to know that. And so now on every album I do, I try to do what I call a project song that has, you know a message for a cause in it, you know? I’ve done one for drug and alcohol awareness. You know, I’m not ashamed to say I’m a long time 12 stepper. You know, I belong to a 12 Step Program. So again, I can use the platform that my career has offered to try to use words to make a difference. A long way of answering your question. I’m sorry.

Roxanne – No, don’t apologize at all. It’s been amazing . No, that’s great. And so I guess you’re really no stranger to, you know, to tapping into the issues that really matter and to pouring your heart out into every song that you create. Was there ever a time where you struggled with, you know how far or how much of yourself you wanted to share?

Wayne – Absolutely. On a personal level, yes. I’ve always been a militant about my private life. I’m not sure exactly the Genesis of that, Roxanne. I think you know, as an artist, I think we’re kind of somewhat, I think at least most of the artists I know we look for the corner in a crowd, you know? I don’t know what that is. It’s the intellect about us or something. And it’s amazing. Some of the most famous people I know are the most shy and I’m certainly one of those people that, you know, I’m a very private, shy person. No question about it. And when I’m on stage, you know, I find I’m never comfortable in an audience, but on a stage, you know, it’s a very controlled, I guess you could say my controlled environment, but when I’m out of that, out of my, you know, controlled environment, I can get very uncomfortable. But I’ve never been comfortable with the celebrity part of the gig. I love the creative part of it. You know, I’m in my studio now. I love to watch you know the music that we create come out of the speakers, you know, the words. I love to see the music we put to those words. And I love that aspect of it. The rest of it, not so much. You know we do it and it’s part of the gig. But again, if it allows me to do songs like God Bless the Children and another one I did called Black and White Rainbows. One of the toughest songs I ever wrote and produced for drug and alcohol awareness. Toughest project I ever did, very personal to me. But yet this song is used in recovery centers. They play it at school graduations. Very tough video to watch. And they play it in prisons. So if going out there and playing that role outside of the studio will keep allowing me that platform to be on here with someone as amazing as you and on this amazing show and to be able to talk about those topics and to talk about the amazing blessing of adoption and sobriety, then of course I’ll do it, you know? But the creative bit, and you know. You know, when you’re sitting down being a writer, you know, when you get that paragraph, or when you get that storyline and you know how that feels and you know it can be alone at three o’clock in the morning and you just get that, you just get it. And that’s what drives me. And you just know that there’s gonna be people who get it along with you. And when you get that reward, you know, back when I was, I remember, you know putting out songs and getting mail from people who said that they used this song of mine at a wedding or at a funeral or at graduation. I mean, you know, to know that the words that you were digging for, you know that rhyme, that line that made sense, connected with somebody on that level, that you can be used even via digital media to be invited into someone’s life, into their car, into their living rooms. It’s a blessing, you know? It’s a blessing. And you know, something that, I think it was you that said it, Roxanne and it’s so true and I know that now more than ever having now written a book, that everyone’s life is a story, you know. And I hope that people will really utilize someone as gifted as you to tell that story, because you know, we’re all different the same and if we can just use each other’s experiences and how we got through them to share with each other how we survive, you know, different elements of our lives, there’s just so much we can learn from each other. So much. And that’s something I really learned from the experience of putting my pen to paper and putting this book out. And I’ve got to tell you writing a book was something I never dreamed I would be doing. I never thought I’d be on here talking to the Phoenix Phenomenon about a book. It just was not on my bucket list. You know, it was certain

Roxanne – Yay!

Wayne – Certain things that came together, you know, a certain co-write with Taylor Swift and also, I think, I think Roxanne, I was amazed by how the book publishing and music publishing mirrored each other so much. Those two worlds of entertainment, you know, the publicity department to the promotional aspects of it all. I was amazed in how they just mirrored each other and also how frustrating both aspects of them are the same way. You know, the monopolization, the monopolization of it all, which just really frustrates me. I know in the music business there are so many just amazing artists, so much, you know, better than I’ll ever be but there’s like seven people that control the whole business. Frustrates me, really does. And one of the things I’ve been allowed to do through this book and having been on a major label, which really actually, made me for a while part of the problem, I can really now celebrate and talk about more of the world of independence, you know? And I’m really glad to be able to do that. That set me on a whole new mission, because I just don’t like the monopoly of the whole thing and I think there’s so much great talent that’s being squashed, that’s being discouraged and so I’m trying to pave that way. Now I understand, that having been on a major label has helped me, I get that and I’m obviously very grateful, but I just don’t like the, and I’m sure it’s the same way. And I’ve learned it somewhat the same way in the book publishing arena, you know? And I just find that, but again, if they can tap into people like you and your knowledge, I think that’s a huge asset that I hope people will really utilize.

Roxanne – Excellent. Now that’s great. And so, Wayne, what was it specifically about that co-writing experience with Taylor that planted the idea of a book? Because, you know, it’s not, I don’t know, I wouldn’t say that those two would go hand in hand, but obviously there was something about that process that made you look outside the box at other platforms that you could tap into.

Wayne – Well, Roxanne, it was more the involvement that I had in her career at the time that the co-write existed. And so my sons kept telling me, you know, and it was a aspect of her career that I’d never been told and I didn’t really think it needed to be, but it’s Taylor Swift. And so anything that Taylor Swift does, every one seems to wanna know about it. To me, she’s just, you know, an amazing friend and a talented girl. And my sons kept saying, “You know, dad, “if you don’t tell that story, someone else is going to.” And so I was afraid that, you know there would be some loss of integrity with someone else telling the story and I wanted to protect it, protect her and I didn’t want it to be a tabloid type of story. And after I had written the book, there were publishers and stuff that wanted to get involved in it and wanted to make it more of a tabloid type of story. And so that wasn’t my goal and that wasn’t what it was going to be about. And the other thing my sons told me and I still rejected the idea of writing a book, but then Roxanne, I thought if we could tap into some of the other things that we just talked about, if I could use my affiliations in the music business and my experiences in the music business of having been on a major label, to tell some artists what to expect that I wished I had known going into it and to use that as a Trojan horse, to then talk about my experiences with addiction and more importantly sobriety, then I became willing to do it. And that I guess was probably my Northern star. And so I sat down one night reluctantly, and I typed that first sentence and the next thing I knew I was typing the last one. And that–

Roxanne – Wow

Wayne – That’s exactly how it happened. You know, I’m not a learned man. You know, I quit school in eighth grade and I’m not bragging about that. You know, I made my first record when I was 16 years old and I went on tour. And so I wanted the book to just be told as I told it. I didn’t have it polished, You know, I knew what my audience was going to be and I mean, obviously we had somebody like you looking over it and making sure it wasn’t you know, written too bad but well, I wanted it to be, I just wanted it to be for my heart and soul. And you know, I’m amazed by the connectivity that it made. You know, I’ve always been, as I said earlier, very blessed to connect with people via that three minute song in digital format. But now I’m getting these letters that are three pages long, you know and they’re talking about their own journey into sobriety, or they’re sending me pictures of their adopted beautiful family and they’re talking about their struggles with other music business. And there’s just you know, heartfelt, a different type of connection. And what a gift that’s been and I got to tell you, its something I didn’t expect. And I certainly didn’t expect the reviews I’m getting and I didn’t expect to be talking with people you know, at your level. And so it’s just been an amazing journey. Another part, you know, it’s just another eye on my music career that I just never never expected. You know, we had all these book tours and everything lined up. You know I was very blessed to be working with the Dolly Parton team. And of course then COVID came along and it had no guilt or shame about changing all of our plans, but that allowed me time also to be working on my new album. So as you know, we worked on, was it you that said something about finding your why?

Roxanne – Yes, yes.

Wayne – Well, so we find our why in everything we do and I’ve been thrilled to be here in my studio and in Nashville to be working on the new album. And so it’s just been great. And I think everybody should find their why. And you know, it’s funny that one little, that little letter is sometimes to be a little bit elusive, you know? But it’s a great thing when you find it.

Roxanne – Absolutely. Well and it takes a lot of bravery to find it too, because often, you know, it is buried under a few layers. We do like to, you know, the way that we just go about our day to day, we don’t often have that time to reflect. So to be able to uncover it and to run with it is just amazing, so.

Wayne – Roxanne, you hit on something so so powerful there. Bravery was something, you know, I don’t know how many times I said, “I’m not going to put this out there.” You know, I have never, you know you know, my songs, they certainly come from me, but very surface. You know what I mean? There’s nothing in this book that’s surface. I don’t think and that was, it was, it was one of the bravest things I think I’ve ever done. But on the other hand, that also made it very rewarding. You know, when it did go out and I started getting this feedback and it just blew my mind, you know? It was a scary thing to do, but again, very very rewarding.

Roxanne – Absolutely. And what I love about your book too, like you said, nothing about it is surface level. Like this is not your standard, you know, hero’s journey, the rags to riches music star. It’s like, you know, there’s elements of your journey in that direction, but it’s very much about all these other elements and you know, particularly about, you know, racial climate challenges that you’ve faced as well as your you know, the addiction and trying to build a family through adoption and all that and all those amazing things. Can you tell us a bit about, you know, you mentioned these words just flowed onto the page, but were there any moments where I guess, you were maybe a bit afraid to talk about these things or to bring them out into the light or was this your why and this was what was driving you to get these to get the spotlight on these issues?

Wayne – Well, there were some things that I was worried about. You know I wanted to be careful about offending other people. I wasn’t so much worried about offending the industry, because, you know there are some things, Roxanne, that need to be changed that I thought needed to be addressed. Now, there were some things slowly changing, but slowly is underlined and capitalized by that. And it’s, you know, we don’t have time for slowly anymore you know, slowly is a gone past you know, on some of these things. You know, as I mentioned earlier, I have two amazing black boys, which I’m so thrilled about and by the way, in Northern Vermont, where I live, that’s rare and I never lose my boys in the snow. So, it’s a great thing. And I’m just so proud of my sons. But country music was very, in my opinion, slow, you know, the one thing about art I think, Roxanne, I’m a fan of art. You being a writer, I think it’s safe to say you are too. And I always think art is better when there’s colors involved. And I think country music was slow in my opinion, to embrace that theme. And as a dad of well, colored sons, that bothered me. And so I think it’s my duty, you know, to voice that. And so if some people in the industry are offended by that, oh, well, you know? Having been on a major label and knowing that I won’t go back to a major label, what have I got to lose? So I feel like it’s my duty, to having had that experience, I feel like I’m kind of complacent if I don’t try to make a difference. And so again, we talked earlier about the power of words. Yeah, I hope the book wasn’t offensive. I didn’t mean it to be, I tried to do it with, you know, you can use a lot of words and I tried to do it with words that mirrored and reflected compassion and love and hope, but also with an understanding that things needed to be changed. And so again, I hope I’ll use my limited knowledge of writing a book in a way that can make people maybe see things you know, through a different vision. You know, I’m being a white father of black sons can sometimes have unique experience, you know? And this is what I was talking about earlier about people tapping into the resources of a ghostwriter and sharing different experiences with each other so that we can you know, grow through each other’s experiences. What an amazing world we could have, if we all could just learn from each other’s resources and knowledge you know and gain from each other’s strengths.

Roxanne – Absolutely. And you’ve talked about you know, the impact that has been felt from the release of this book. You know, the people that have contacted you from around the world and shared these amazing stories with you. I’d like to ask how your sons reacted. What was it like for them to see you know, the first physical copies of this book that they had encouraged you to write?

Wayne – Well, the day that the books actually arrived here you know, we opened up the box together and you know, they’re the ones that really, they were the Genesis of the whole thing. And I would call them and read, you know, “What do you think of this? “What you think of that, you know? And you know, that was one of those and you know what I mean, Roxanne and all your viewers and listeners will know what I mean. There are times in life and they don’t last long enough, but you have when I’ve had them on stage before. You’ll have these wow moments. You know, just like, wow and it’s gone like that. I’ve learned now, as I get older to really acknowledge them when they happen. And that was one of them, you know? I’ve had them on stage. You know, I’ll share one night, I’ll share one and I’m sure a lot of your audience will know who Bonnie Tyler is or they’ll know her song, Total Eclipse of the Heart. And she did a duet with me on an album and I’ve always been a fan of Total Eclipse of the Heart and, you know, I Need a Hero and I learned a lot from that experience, because there was a country artist, a well-known country artist. She was supposed to do that song with me. And in fact did recorded the song with me. And at that time we’re gonna have a little, we’ll go into the entertainment, gossip column thing for just a little bit. I don’t like to go there. I don’t like to go there, but we will. And I was a fan, a fan of this amazing singer. But at that time I was fairly newly sober and she was far from it and getting in a lot of tabloid headlines for being just that. And I didn’t wanna be connected to that kind of tabloid headlines at that time. I still wouldn’t. And so I asked the record label just not to put the record out. And I felt terrible about it, because I was such a fan and the record sounded great and you know, to be singing with her was and is an honor. But we ended up, you know, not putting the record out. And I actually forgot about, forgot about this song and then I was working on a new album again and I tend to and you being a writer will understand this and all your writer listeners will understand this, ballads, I like to write slow ballad songs more than I do uptempo songs, because they rely more on the words, on the lyrics ’cause they’re not driven by beats and drums and bass, you know, they challenge me as a writer. And so I was listening back to the album that I thought was done and I said, “You know, it’s too ballad heavy. “I need an uptempo song,” and so I went back to my catalog and I came across that song, that I did with that other country artist an uptempo, rocking song. And I said, “Geez, that’s a good song. “I had forgotten about that. “Who can I get to sing it with me? “I’ll recap this song for this album.” And I was sitting in this house at my kitchen table with the radio on, drinking my coffee out of my fab dad cup that my sons got me and on came Bonnie Tyler singing Total Eclipse of the Heart. And I knew, I said, “That’s the one, she’s the one. “She’s gotta be the one to sing the song with me. “She’s the only one.” And coincidentally, we had some mutual friends and within an hour I had sent her the song. She says, “I love it, I’ll do it.” A lesson in that is, you know, sometimes when you think things are going wrong and going bad as I did, when I thought, you know we had to put that song on the shelf and it was the end of it, I ended up with one of my heroes singing on the song with me and that was a good lesson for me, you know? And so every time I hear that song, I’m reminded of that, that sometimes things just don’t go the way that you think they should for a reason. I think Garth had a song called Unanswered Prayers you know, I thank God for Unanswered Prayers. And so a good lesson for me. And I write about that in the book. And Bonnie Tyler makes me sound a lot better than I really did.

Roxanne – Oh, excellent. That’s great. And so, yeah, obviously you were well versed in being able to really capture people in that three-minute window. And as you would know now, you know, writing long form in a book is a completely different beast, but it sounds like you really just tapped into your heart and really poured out the messages that needed to be said. But I guess, did you find any challenges in switching formats from that songwriting ability through to creating your book

Wayne – Roxanne, I’m sure I would have if I had done that right. You know, I mean, you know, I don’t know how to write a book. You know, I’m sure that someone like you, you know, would read this book and thought, “You know, this isn’t right and this isn’t right “and this is right,” when I literally, I literally, as I said, I sat down one night and wrote the first sentence and I tried to do it in sort of a rhythmic way, I guess, like I would a song. And I’m sure that’s completely wrong. But you know, I just did it as I would I suppose, a song, you know? I don’t know, a 25 chapter song. Does that make any sense at all?

Roxanne – Yeah , it does. Well, if it worked for you, obviously, that’s amazing.

Wayne – I mean, you know, I’ve never talked to an author before I wrote this book. I didn’t get any pointers. I remember distinctly that night that my sons walked out of my house and said, “Dad, you really need to get started on that book,” and I said, “Well, that’s not gonna happen.” And they walked out and I sat at that same kitchen table and I wrote, “I hate video shoots,” and the next thing I knew, I looked up and it was done. And that’s literally how it happened. I mean, there was some fine tuning, a little bit in through there, but I was just amazed at you know, how that happened. Absolutely amazed. I’m sure you have felt that sometimes. You know, there’s a famous country artist, died young, the country poet, Hank Williams. He always said, you know, “God writes a song “if I just hold the pen.” And I did feel like sometimes I was just being channeled. I’m sure you have felt that.

Roxanne – Mm.

Wayne – And there were some times when I re-read what I wrote and I thought “I don’t even sound like me. “That doesn’t even sound like something,” I mean, I was amazed when I wrote it. I mean when I read it. I was like, “Wow, I can’t put this down.” And that was interesting. I’m sure you felt that before.

Roxanne – Yeah, absolutely. And you know what? It’s so incredible and I feel like, because you had that experience that this was something that you know, had been brewing inside of you for some time and you just allowed it to come out. So to me, it just sounds like you were purely in the state of flow and yeah, it just needed to arrive and arrive it did.

Wayne – You know, I guess. You know, I sit here, you know, I’ve got the book in front of me and I still I’ve looked at so many of my album covers, you know? And they’re cool. You know what I mean? It’s neat. But when I looked down at this book, I’m still like “What?” You know? It still blows my mind. And when I get mail about it, you know I expect it to be about song and I’m like, “Oh, they’re talking about the book.” It’s an amazing thing. But I have such a whole new respect now, when I’m reading, I read different than I used to and for people like you who do this, I have a whole new respect for, you know, your audience and people who write and people like you who do this because I don’t know, I have a whole different insight about it and like I said, I even read differently now, you know? I guess it’s definitely a whole new world for sure. And I still when people call me an author, I’m like, “What was that?” You know?

Roxanne – Yeah.

Wayne – And when somebody said, “I read your book,” I’m like, “Really?” you know? But anyway, it’s really cool and you know, I get the reviews on it and I see some reviews on it and it’s just, I’m just honored, so thrilled. And you know the feeling.

Roxanne – Yeah. Absolutely. And so I do, as you know, I do ask every guest on the show, you know, what their Phoenix phenomenon was. And I know that you have an innate understanding of what that is. It’s, you know, the transformative process that one goes through when they do, you know, do the deep dive and they put those words between the covers. So, yeah, I’d love to find out a bit more about what that process was like for you and what you learned about yourself.

Wayne – I’ll tell you, one of the things that I learned most about what I learned when I wrote the book was that I didn’t enjoy my nows then. You know, I was going through in writing, you know, all these things that, I’m really learning I hope, to enjoy my nows now, because I didn’t enjoy my now’s then. And so I really hope that in writing this book, I learn to enjoy my nows now, because I was looking back on this and things were happening, you know, we were on a tour, we had a hit record, you know, I didn’t know what state I was in. You know, I was working with all these artists. It was hi, nice to see you, I’d go on and sing and get off. I just didn’t enjoy my nows then. And I think in the process of writing this book, I really regretted that. You know, I got to hold up this book and it’s, you know it’s that thick and I wasn’t there for it. You know what I mean? This compiles, you know, a lot of time within these pages and a lot of experiences and I just wasn’t there. I wasn’t present before. I wasn’t enjoying my nows then and there was a lot of amazing nows then. And there’s a lot of amazing now’s now. And so I’m hoping that and I’m thinking that I’m enjoying my nows now. Does that answer the question, Roxanne?

Roxanne – Yeah, absolutely. I love that. Thank you.

Wayne – Yeah. And see I’m hoping that maybe somebody else can learn from that.

Roxanne – Absolutely, I think we can all take a leaf out of that book, for sure. I know we’re just so busy doing all the time that we don’t stop and think about what it is that we’re actually doing and…

Wayne – And sometimes we forget who’s doing it. You know what I mean, Roxanne. I mean, look at you. Sunshine Coast Business Women Network, my weekly previews and you don’t allow no dust to settle on your pens, you know? All these amazing things you’re doing. So I hope you’re enjoying your nows now, because you’re doing some amazing things you know?

Wayne – Yeah, Thank you. And congratulations by the way, for all the things you’ve got going on, the nominations and all. I’m proud of you.

Roxanne – Thank you.

Roxanne – Thank you very much. Really really amazing insights with our viewers today and thank you so much for your time for that. Now I do always wrap up these great conversations with just some advice. So a lot of people who are listening are really keen to know about the author’s journey. You know, it’s so different for everyone which is what I love about this show, but what would be your advice to people who, you know, they may be on the fence about becoming authors, they may have taken a few tentative steps but not gone all the way. What would you say to them to, I guess get them really amped up about sharing their message with the world?

Wayne – First of all, to know you have one. And second of all, to write that first sentence. That’s what happened. I wrote that first sentence and know that you have a message, know that you have a story and obviously to tap into someone like you, who can encourage them and to help them to tell it, you know? And know that someone is gonna learn from you and that you could encourage so many people from your story. I mean, for everything that’s ever happened to you, all those times that you sat alone, crying when no one else was looking, crying yourself asleep or worrying about this, or celebrating when no one else was looking, by yourself, you were with you through it all. And you’ve got some amazing stories to tell, you know? And so you’ve got to celebrate that person that was with you and share it. And I guarantee you, it’s as amazing as you think it is. And so tell it, you know? My story is nothing. My story is not that fantastic, but it’s getting amazing reviews and I’m sure yours is amazing too. So let us learn from some of the things that you’ve been through. Some of us probably, are going to have some challenges similar to that and you might be able to help us get through it. Let us laugh at some of the things you laughed at. Some of the jokes, we’ll never get to hear. Some of the funny things we’ll never get to do which you did. Tell your story, you know? And it’s very enlightening and you can share it with your kids, share it with your family. Share your you. I think that would be my advice and is it gonna be scary? Yeah, but it’s a fun, scary kind, it’s a fun kind of scary and it’s very rewarding. I mean, that’s my advice From a little–

Roxanne – Wonderful. Thank you.

Wayne – From a little country singer in Vermont.

Roxanne – All right. And so, Wayne, can you tell us a little bit about how people can get their hands on a copy of your amazing book, which is called Backstage Nashville?

Wayne – Backstage Nashville. Well, they can get it of course at waynewarner.com, which I love because those are all autographed, so I get to know who you are and they can get it where, what’s that line or wherever books are sold. You know, Amazon and all those places where you get your books. But if you get it through waynewarner.com, those are all signed and I love that. So I get to know who you are and I get to know your name. So, get on there and while you’re on there, or go to my Facebook page also, not to get a book, but to say hello, because I’d love to hear from you and I love to hear from Roxanne’s friends and if you’ve got let me know.

Roxanne – Excellent. Thank you so much, Wayne. And yeah, thank you so much for joining us, for giving us your time tonight. It was a real pleasure to get to know you and your story a little bit more and for you to share your incredible insights with our viewers. So thank you.

Wayne – I hope that the weather made the audio bad enough so that I sound more intelligent than I am. And thank you so much. Thank you so much. And to all your listeners out there, we say love one another, stay well and for all the people on the front lines, thank you for all you do and thanks so much for having me on. I appreciate it, Roxanne.

Roxanne – Wonderful, thank you.